Keller Williams Realty, Inc., took up residence at No. 1 (up from No. 2 last year) on the 2015 Training Top 125, while Jiffy Lube International drove into the No. 2 spot. Health-care companies dominated the rest of the Top 5, with Capital BlueCross, CHG Healthcare Services, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan notching Nos. 3, 4, and 5, respectively.
Some 27 new companies broke into the Top 125 this year. The majority of the companies are in the health/medical services, real estate/insurance, finance/banking, technology, and retail industries.
Here are some overall statistics from the quantitative analysis of the 2015 Training Top 125 applications:
- The mean revenue was $4.5 billion U.S. and $6 billion worldwide. The mean training budget was $30.6 million, representing 5.92 percent of payroll. The mean amount of training costs savings was 10 percent.
- The mean number of total employees trained per organization (including independent contractors and franchisees) was 38,619, with 19,031 trained in the classroom and 31,915 trained online. A mean of 591 courses were offered as instructor-led sessions; 2,429 were offered as online self-paced modules; and 164 were offered as virtual instructor-led classrooms.
- The average number of full- and part-time trainers was 117 and 674, respectively.
- Some 97 percent of applicants have a tuition reimbursement program. A mean of 8 percent of eligible employees made use of tuition reimbursement programs in the last year. Median spend on tuition reimbursement programs was $462,350.
- Some 99 percent of applicants use employee satisfaction surveys, while 97 percent use competency maps and personal/individual development plans. Some 71 percent tie managers’ compensation directly to the development of their direct reports.
- On the evaluation side, 74 percent of applicants utilize Return on Value; 82 percent utilize Return on Investment; 76 percent utilize Balanced Scorecards; and 57 percent utilize Six Sigma. The Kirkpatrick Levels of Evaluation are more widely used: Level 1 (98 percent), Level 2 (96 percent), Level 3 (95 percent), and Level 4 (86 percent).
- The average length of employee service was seven years, and the average turnover rate was 19 percent.
- Internal candidates filled a mean of 40 percent of job openings, while employees referred a mean of 26 percent of new hires.
As we head toward the middle of first quarter 2015, companies increasingly are concerned about employee retention and recruitment, according to a survey of 423 executives by TAG Employer Services. A contributing factor to employee engagement and retention is happiness at work. As positive psychologist and Training 2015 keynoter Shawn Achor has discovered through his research, “senior leaders who choose happiness, and make the required commitment, stand to create organizations that learn how to optimize the benefits of positive emotions and have this learning spread throughout their organizations and outward to their customers. See “Why Can’t We All Be Happy at Work?” for more on the research and case studies. Here’s to a very Happy 2015!